*Photo from the San Diego Union Tribune*
At what looks to be an optimal time, the San Francisco Giants are putting together a strong stretch. Evan Longoria homered, Joey Bart drove in two runs, and the Giants defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 6-1 victory on Monday night in San Francisco.
Entering another home series after sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates over the weekend, the Giants kept on rolling against a division rival. They picked up their 4th straight win and 7th in 10 games. Since the start of 2020, The Giants have won 18 of 20 home games against the D-Backs, including 7 wins in their last 9 games overall.
This time around for the Giants, the key contributors were Longoria and Bart. Longoria homered to drive in two, and Bart had a 3 hit day and two RBI's of his own. He is currently on a career best 7 game hitting streak, and 5 of those games have been multi hit performances.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler said of Bart that "It's very encouraging. Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but now it’s starting to get a little consistent. I know Joey is reaping the benefits of that with his confidence levels. As a team, I think we’re really benefiting from him and his production at the bottom of the lineup."
After a scoreless 3 innings, Longoria got the scoring started in the 4th with a two run home run to center field, making it a 2-0 Giants lead. One inning later, Austin Slater added an RBI single to add to the lead, scoring Joey Bart to make it a 3-0 ballgame.
Once the 6th inning came around, Christian Walker got the D-Backs on the board. Walker hit a solo home run to center field, cutting the deficit to a 3-1 margin. In the bottom of the 6th, Thairo Estrada restored the 3 run Giants lead with an RBI double. Estrada and Longoria both scored on a two run single from Bart, making it a 6-1 game.
Bart said of his recent success that "It's just baseball. You’ve got to come in every day and try to get better. It’s really all I’m trying to do. Just trying to stay competitive on both sides of the ball, get our starting pitching deep into games and put the best at-bats together that I can."
Getting the start for the Giants was Alex Cobb, who picked up the win. Cobb allowed one run on 5 hits and 3 walks across 6 innings pitched, striking out 5 hitters. Tyler Rogers and Alex Young finished the 7th inning, with Dominic Leone pitching the 8th inning and Jarlin Garcia sealing the win in the 9th inning.
Former Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner started for the D-Backs, being charged with 6 runs on 8 hits in 5 2/3 innings of work. Kevin Ginkel came on and pitched the next 1 1/3 innings out of the bullpen, followed by one inning from Edwin Uceta.
Bumgarner said of his start that "The first part was definitely pretty good. And I don't think that anything changed other than the results. Like I was still pitching pretty similar all the way through. Just really good in the first half of it, and then equally as bad in the second half. One of the more frustrating outings I've had."
Up next, the Giants and D-Backs continue their series on Tuesday night. Jakob Junis is expected to start for San Francisco, while Merrill Kelly goes for Arizona.
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